Ex-President's Daughter Freed, Leaves Kyrgyzstan

Bermet Akaeva (file photo) (ITAR-TASS) September 17, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Bermet Akaeva, the daughter of former Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev, has been released from house arrest and has left Kyrgyzstan after charges against her were dropped.

Tursunbek Aku, head of Kyrgyzstan's Human Rights Commission, told RFE/RL today that she traveled with Bermet Akaeva on September 17 to Almaty in Kazakhstan.


Akaeva had been charged with obstructing justice, contempt of court, and creating "mass public disorder."


She was accused of pressuring a regional court in a bid to overturn an April decision that barred her from being a candidate in a special parliamentary by-election. Kyrgyzstan's National Security Service dropped those charges on September 13.


In another development today, a former acting interior minister of Kyrgyzstan, Omurbek Subanaliev, was appointed a senior aide to President Kurmanbek Bakiev -- just days after criminal charges against him were dropped.


Subanaliev, known as a close ally of former Prime Minister Felix Kulov, has been appointed as head of the Department of Defense and Security Affairs.


Subanaliev had been charged with helping to organize an unauthorized opposition rally in Bishkek in April, but the National Security Service dropped the charges a day after it cleared Akaeva.


(RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service)

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